Canted coil springs have been used for making electrical connections between a pair of spaced-apart substrates. The canted coil springs have an elliptical cross-section including a major axis and a minor axis. These canted coil spring contacts are quite small and preferably (but not necessarily) the springs are compressed in a direction which is perpendicular to the major axis of the ellipse, as the desired electrical connection is made.
Such an arrangement is disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,109 assigned to the assignee of the present invention. In this '109 patent, an area array connector includes a carrier plate having openings formed therein for receiving respective canted coil spring contacts.
Other prior art, of which we are aware, are the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,795,884; 3,985,413; and 4,655,462.